Published by the government of Zimbabwe
8 July 2009
editorial
Harare — The deal signed between the Government and the Food and Agriculture Organisationm (FAO) to provide agricultural inputs to 150 000 resource-poor farmers should lay the foundation for achieving national food security.
Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Minister Joseph Made and FAO director Jacques Diouf signed the 15,4 million euro deal on Monday, paving the way for the distribution of inputs to qualifying rural households.
Experience has shown us that no country can go wrong with its agriculture if it capacitates smallholder farmers. These farmers value the inputs given to them and would always strive to put them to productive use. History has shown that most of the seed and fertiliser given to smallholder farmers finds its way to the field and not to the illegal parallel market.
Also, records show that the bulk of maize and cotton ever produced in this country came from the smallholder sector, with communal farmers accounting for over 80 percent of output.
We believe that the only sure way of getting back our crop production levels, especially maize, to the record 2,1 million tonnes achieved several seasons ago, is by providing the smallholder sector with the prerequisite inputs.
And in this regard, we want to commend the Government and FAO for realising that our food security status lies in the efforts of communal farmers. Obviously the efforts of smallholder farmers, coupled with the contribution from commercial farmers, make food security achievable.
This is indeed the first step towards Zimbabwe reclaiming its top spot as the breadbasket of Southern Africa. We want to revert to being a net exporter of agricultural produce and not a net importer that we have become as a result of recurrent droughts.
Crop production has tumbled in the smallholder sector over a couple of seasons owing largely to the lack of financial resources, with inputs prices soaring to levels well beyond the reach of farmers.
The only way to rebound agricultural production under such circumstances is through input schemes such as the one agreed between Government and FAO and the contract farming system. Examples abound of countries that have achieved food security by empowering smallholder farmers.
In Malawi, President Bingu wa Mutharika is credited with transforming agriculture in his country through the introduction of a fertiliser subsidy to the smallholder sector. Through the subsidy, Malawi has realised a maize surplus over the past few seasons.
Even in countries like Brazil, smallholder farmers produce almost the entire flue-cured tobacco output of over 800 000 tonnes, making it the world's largest producer. This has been made possible through the contract system where a farmer produces the crop on only 2,5 hectares of land.
It has thus been proved that the size of land does not really matter but the capacity to produce more per unit area of land on the back of adequate inputs.
While we believe the deal will be a major boost to agriculture, we remain worried about the distribution of the inputs.
There is clarity as regards the target beneficiaries of the deal and we hope that those tasked with the distribution will ensure the targeted group gets the inputs.
There have been cases in the past where inputs have been abused by those given the responsibility to distribute them and we want to believe Government has done everything to plug such loopholes.
We do not want to see the inputs flooding the parallel market after being given to people who do not need them. Let the selection of beneficiaries be transparent and follow-ups done to see if the inputs are being used on the land.
The Government must ensure needy cases get the inputs and that those found to have abused the scheme for their selfish gains are brought to book.
Food security must start at the household level where farmers produce enough to meet their domestic consumption requirements with the surplus sold to the Grain Marketing Board and other industry players.
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